Competition at the $500 per week range is intense, because there are many people who can't afford more than that.
I worked somewhere they moved payday by 1d explicitly for financial reasons ...
Quite often, the month of the date is more relevant to me than the day. Knowing at a glance whether something is happening in the same month as the current day, or in the same month as some other date, is more convenient, as is being able to easily group things by month visually.
And yeah, I can definitely acknowledge month/day/year makes no sense, but it works for me.